A Tale of Two Castles

One day we set out on a drive

And headed south, towards blue skies.

Atop a hill we spied a castle

Thanks to the car, we arrived without hassle.

Xàtiva is the fortress’ name

Where Romans stood and laid their claim.

With gardens green and pools of blue

It was a special place. That much we knew.

On to Sagunto! David cried

As we headed north, close to the tide.

Again we climbed up rather high

My legs grew weary, I cannot lie.

Yet once again it was worth the struggle,

Though this castle was little more than rubble.

But the views from the top were a sight to behold

Green hills, blue seas and sands of gold.

Spain is full of castles. Thousands of them, in varying degrees of ruin, are scattered around the country and, while the city of Valencia itself doesn’t have one, there are quite a few within day-tripping distance. Today I’m writing about two of them - Castell de Xàtiva and Castillo de Sagunto.

Xàtiva

We stopped at this castle on our way back from visiting my uncle in Torrevieja. It’s about an hour’s drive from Valencia centre and well worth a visit if you have the time. It’s location atop a jagged hill makes for a very striking sight as you approach from below, and once you’re up there you can see for miles.

Apparently this castle is located in a very strategic position, on an ancient road leading from Rome, across the Pyrenees, and down the Mediterranean coast to Cádiz.

The castle grounds are long and narrow, stretching across two peaks of the hill. This means there’s quite a bit of climbing involved in the visit, but the gardens, water features and well-preserved fortifications are worth a bit of effort.

When you've gotta go, you've gotta go!

Sagunto

Closer to the coast than Xàtiva, this castle offers something different in terms of views. Also set on a hilltop, this fortress dates back thousands of years, to when the town had a rather amusing name – Arse!

I must admit that, while it is conveniently located just half an hour from Valencia, this castle isn’t quite as worth visiting as Xàtiva. It’s much more of a ruin and there is little in the way of plaques or information about where you are and what you’re looking at.

Still, we had the place to ourselves when we visited, which was a welcome bit of peace after the manic morning we'd had at Tomatina (blog post coming soon!) and we very much enjoyed the views and sea breeze.

Ruta De Los Calderones - Chulilla

As we mentioned in our last post about the San Juan festival in Valencia, my cousin Anya and her friend Charlotte came to stay after their A-Level exams. We had an absolutely raucous time celebrating with them, doing all sorts of wild things like going for hikes and lying on the beach. Boy, do we know how to party! 

I feel as thirty-year-olds, the burning fire of crazy youth has dwindled to smouldering embers that require a lot of work to stoke back to that level of youthful craziness. 

Although it wasn't too crazy, we did have a really nice time (and hopefully they did too!) One of the days we rented a car to explore some of the countryside around the city. Our first stop was a town called Chulilla, which had been recommended to me by a colleague as a good place for a nice walk. And it was! We parked up, picked a direction and started walking. Pretty early into the walk we got a lovely view of a ravine, and spotted some little deer down at the bottom!

The day was hot and there was no shade on the hike, so we took it easy and the girls were very vigilant with their sun cream. After a while we came to a suspension bridge, which Anya and I were a little nervous about crossing. But we did it! And then tried not to think too much about having to do it again on the way back…

After an hour, we came across a lovely little clearing with a bridge across the stream, where Dave and Charlotte had a paddle to cool off. Then we turned around and made our way back, as our water supplies were running low and we forgot to nominate a hydration captain for the day! After the near-death-by-dehydration experience on a hike earlier this year, we've decided a hydration captain is essential whenever we're out of the house.

Back at the car we rehydrated and enjoyed our packed lunches before heading into the town of Chulilla. We attempted to make our way to the castle but were thwarted by the insanely narrow roads and maze-like one-way system. This has become a reoccurring problem when driving through small towns with castles on hilltops. The roads were designed for little horses, not rental cars with little horsepower and large excesses.

After agreeing that returning the rental car un-ruined was more important that seeing the castle ruins, we left Chulilla (which is very quaint) and headed further west. We enjoyed the views as we drove around the hills and sandy, dry fields. Then we came across an incredible reservoir and dam in a place called Benagéber. The views were pretty impressive and we stopped for a while to take it all in.

Once we’d had our fill of the vista we headed back towards Valencia, stopping briefly in Chelva. We thought there might be a nice walk to be had around the Ruta del Agua area, but either we were in the wrong place, or it just didn’t seem impressive enough to our tired eyes. Regardless, we found a picnic bench and enjoyed the excuse to stop and have an ice lolly.

It was a lovely day and, while the landscape around Valencia isn’t my favourite, I’m definitely growing accustomed to the less lush, less green nature and learning to appreciate it for what it is. And it’s not half bad.

The dam and reservoir in Benagéber

Ruta de los Aguas in Chelva

Reus and Delta de l’Ebre Natural Park

This is a short post to end our short trip away, which started with a drive up the coast through Peñíscola, eventually arriving in Tarragona.

After leaving Tarragona and stopping at Les Ferreres Aqueduct on the way out of the city, we headed back east and a little inland to Reus. The town was nice enough, with a couple of interesting buildings and a Gaudi museum (which we didn’t visit), but there wasn’t that much to write home about, so I’ll leave it there!

From Reus we drove back to the coast and continued east to the Ebro Delta. The area we explored is called Parc Natural del Delta de l’Ebre and it’s huge, with a mixture of farmland, wetlands, lakes, river, grasslands and coastline.

We spent a few hours driving around, occasionally pulling over at a hide to do some birdwatching. Apparently there are around 95 species of birds that breed in the wetlands, as well as 300 more that stop by throughout the year. We saw various waders, egrets, a kestrel, herons, marsh harriers but best of all – FLAMINGOS!

The delta is completely flat and the roads are decent so it’s a great place to explore by bike. Before finally heading back to Valencia, we stopped in a quaint village called Poble Nou for a speedy but tasty lunch, and noticed quite a few guest houses offering bike rentals. A mental note was made and Dad and I have pencilled in a trip for 2019, so watch this space…

Just a quick one today but we'll leave you with photos and hopefully an urge to go explore the Delta. It is very serene and definitely a place worth revisiting. Until next time.

Poble Nou really is a lovely little village and well worth a visit if you're in the delta

Peñíscola

Another long weekend, another mini roadtrip from Valencia – this time to Tarragona. As usual, we rented a car to make the most of the journey up the coast, stopping at Castellon de la Plana and Peñíscola on the way. This post is all about that drive and we want to share our route and experiences so others can follow along.

Our first stop was Castellon de la Plana. Wow. This town has a phenomenal beach that stretches for miles. We didn't stay long but this is definitely a good place to go for a beach holiday. No doubt.

The beautiful, rather wild-looking beach of Castellon

Rather than taking the most direct route from Castellon to Peñíscola, we decided to hug the coastline and go through a national park (Parque Natural Sierra de Irta). The roads became bumpy and rough on the Cami de Ribamar and we wouldn’t recommend you drive this road with a full bladder! We were driving a brand new Fiat 500 with only a handful of miles on the clock when we picked it up, which got its first off-road experience and had its suspension tested, along with my driving technique. Luckily we both passed and we were all treated to some truly fantastic views. 

There was something delightful about showing this brand new car its first sight of sea and treating it to the stunning vistas. Looking back, I think the heat must have got to us and we clearly anthropomorphised the car a little too much to be thought of as sane.

This little guy really worked hard on this trip!

We had miles of empty beaches to our right and mountains to the left. It was a fantastic road for views, but definitely a more challenging drive than I anticipated so YOU HAVE BE WARNED. The rough terrain was worth it though and we eventually made it to Torre Badum. This little tower was isolated with some great views and made a fantastic 360 panoramic.

Perched on a cliff, the views from Torre Badúm were epic. This photo doesn't quite do it justice!

We left the national park and rounded a corner to get our first glimpse of Peñíscola – it was a breath-taking sight. There is a castle set atop a hill on a peninsula, and you might recognise some of it from Game of Thrones. They shot some scenes in series five here and I can see why. It is beautiful. The castle is fantastic, perched on the edge of a cliff and the surrounding winding streets are full of cute little shops selling tat, food, and ice cream. Peñíscola is a fantastic day trip from Valencia and we would recommend it to anyone. We also had quite a lot of fun pronouncing it Penis Cola, which would taste almost as bad as that time coca-cola brought out a new formula. Yuck!

First glimpse of Peñíscola. What a sight!

On top of the hill it's a labyrinth of narrow streets like this one

After a wander, ice cream and coffee we continued, fairly uneventfully, up the coast to Tarragona. It was a nice enough drive but the views were nothing spectacular compared to our off-road adventure prior to Peñíscola. We'll leave you waiting to hear all about Tarragona, the ancient Roman city, in the next post. And after that, we'll discuss our journey back to Valencia when we stopped off at Reus and the Delta Erbe.

So until then, here are some more photos of this beautiful journey. Hasta luego.

This staircase and road was used in Game of Thrones!

Perfect place to stop for an ice cream

This building is completely covered with shells!

MAP OF OUR ROUTE